IMR Audio : Sonic Adventures & Impressions
- Thread starter NellieG
- Start date
weexisttocease
Headphoneus Supremus
I think something happened to Bob. I never had this kind of experience with him and IMR. This year communication has been pretty bad and lots of problems with the builds.
Is it perspective in the photo or are the Ace shells bigger than the Zeniths?
Aces are HUGE, even bigger than Avalon. Look to the size comparison few pages before.
AlexCBSN
1000+ Head-Fier
Zenith II
Ootb:
First 10 minutes were funny, sort of like that new engine feeling, you know it needs time, however it didnt last long the effect, actually i thought “the treble is too brittle and on the limits” but nah, it was just the beginning of something beautiful
Soundstage feels a bit enclosed right now, but with a ton of depth, not so wide (but im coming from a couple of weeks of modded opus mia madness) closed port does increase sub bass and feels a bit more aggressive but
Bass hits hard, but seems to need to bloom more, as with any other imr, authority comes with time, though i love that i can feel some rumble in it, sub bass seems more present than low mid bass (500hz on) im impressed that it has so much depth, im enjoying it more than my opus mia (and THATS A LOT TO SAY!) and i love the fact that it leaves a bit of a reverb effect, it doesnt disappear right away. Listening to guilty by Yarbrough & people. The bass has excellent extension and texture. I’m on red/ modded gold top (placed the grill a bit more forward, it helps a lot the opus mia and pb2 in the mids)
Mids are the ones taking the first place here, 1k to 4k have authority and a lot of texture, guitars are well articulated, the gnarly sound in crunchy guitars it’s exquisite, highs are really clear and extended “Vicarious redemption” from cult of luna has this beatiful ride cymbal with a chain around that right now its notorious in the mix along with the muted hits in the snare
So far for a first listen, coupled with the opus mia in the side (which are monsters on their own kind) i think ive got what i was looking after, which is a pretty aggressive and sub bass/ mid centric daily driver.
The paint job is really nice, i love that it matches with my ps4 controller hehehehe
Just a/b the first zenith vs the new one… well… someone took a beating, the new one of course has WAAAAAAAY more evolved sound. Funny that just had the OM on my ears as well and can tell right away the difference, treble extension on the new zenith has more elegance than ozar and OM, i like the fact that the soundstage is a bit more narrow, though i think it will develop into something way better with burn in.
I’m leaving the edp ace for later on, really want to focus on it with my critical listening setup (chord mojo -> little bear b4x with 2 burson v6 dual vivids)
Ootb:
First 10 minutes were funny, sort of like that new engine feeling, you know it needs time, however it didnt last long the effect, actually i thought “the treble is too brittle and on the limits” but nah, it was just the beginning of something beautiful
Soundstage feels a bit enclosed right now, but with a ton of depth, not so wide (but im coming from a couple of weeks of modded opus mia madness) closed port does increase sub bass and feels a bit more aggressive but
Bass hits hard, but seems to need to bloom more, as with any other imr, authority comes with time, though i love that i can feel some rumble in it, sub bass seems more present than low mid bass (500hz on) im impressed that it has so much depth, im enjoying it more than my opus mia (and THATS A LOT TO SAY!) and i love the fact that it leaves a bit of a reverb effect, it doesnt disappear right away. Listening to guilty by Yarbrough & people. The bass has excellent extension and texture. I’m on red/ modded gold top (placed the grill a bit more forward, it helps a lot the opus mia and pb2 in the mids)
Mids are the ones taking the first place here, 1k to 4k have authority and a lot of texture, guitars are well articulated, the gnarly sound in crunchy guitars it’s exquisite, highs are really clear and extended “Vicarious redemption” from cult of luna has this beatiful ride cymbal with a chain around that right now its notorious in the mix along with the muted hits in the snare
So far for a first listen, coupled with the opus mia in the side (which are monsters on their own kind) i think ive got what i was looking after, which is a pretty aggressive and sub bass/ mid centric daily driver.
The paint job is really nice, i love that it matches with my ps4 controller hehehehe
Just a/b the first zenith vs the new one… well… someone took a beating, the new one of course has WAAAAAAAY more evolved sound. Funny that just had the OM on my ears as well and can tell right away the difference, treble extension on the new zenith has more elegance than ozar and OM, i like the fact that the soundstage is a bit more narrow, though i think it will develop into something way better with burn in.
I’m leaving the edp ace for later on, really want to focus on it with my critical listening setup (chord mojo -> little bear b4x with 2 burson v6 dual vivids)
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Shadowelite
500+ Head-Fier
I have put a photo of avalon vs ace
Not much bigger
Dont forget ace has two 10mm drivers and a bc
Unlike the Avalon that has ests bc and dd
Zeppmeister
500+ Head-Fier
Something I've been meaning to ask... pardon me for interrupting your feeds about Ace and Zenith II. I've been on this audiophile journey for about 3 years, and still getting acclimated to this world. Question: Where does IMR fit in the hierarchy of audio brands?
Price wise, IMR seems to fit toward the top of the "mid range", I suppose (or maybe toward the bottom of the high-end range), but then we all know the price Bob shows usually isn't what you pay. I still get a little sticker shock when I see what it costs for Campfire Audio, UM, Empire Ears, Audio 64, and the TOTL Sennheiser and Sony IEMs, to name a few. Are they worth it or is it down to marketing? I've spent more than $1,000 (don't tell my wife) on IMR in the last 10 months (Elan, DM, R2 Red, Ace), and part of me wonders if I should have just focused on one IEM from those brands.
My perspective is that IMR units definitely have plenty of bang for the buck and some of Bob's creations can definitely go toe-to-toe with those brands. Accurate? I'm on the headfi Facebook group and often see people post images of their $XXXX dollar IEMS, and my tendency is to smile, knowing (assuming) I'm getting about the same performance at a third or a quarter of the cost. What's the truth?
Thanks in advance.
Price wise, IMR seems to fit toward the top of the "mid range", I suppose (or maybe toward the bottom of the high-end range), but then we all know the price Bob shows usually isn't what you pay. I still get a little sticker shock when I see what it costs for Campfire Audio, UM, Empire Ears, Audio 64, and the TOTL Sennheiser and Sony IEMs, to name a few. Are they worth it or is it down to marketing? I've spent more than $1,000 (don't tell my wife) on IMR in the last 10 months (Elan, DM, R2 Red, Ace), and part of me wonders if I should have just focused on one IEM from those brands.
My perspective is that IMR units definitely have plenty of bang for the buck and some of Bob's creations can definitely go toe-to-toe with those brands. Accurate? I'm on the headfi Facebook group and often see people post images of their $XXXX dollar IEMS, and my tendency is to smile, knowing (assuming) I'm getting about the same performance at a third or a quarter of the cost. What's the truth?
Thanks in advance.
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Well, it looks like it's one cable. Anyway looks weird, but may be it's some mistake. Alternatively it'll come handy flipping Aces later on
NellieG
1000+ Head-Fier
Well, this
causes this
That's it, more money equals lots of marketing and fancy packaging and some but not all supremely beautiful good looking IEM's, which of those adds to the sound quality? So sound quality wise yes you can get better than IMR but as you say bang for buck you can easily forgive IMR's. With the money saved you can have multiple IEM's and/or whatever DAP, Amp, cables etc etc etc. Imagine spending upwards of 1k and not liking them. Fudge that.
PeacockObscura
1000+ Head-Fier
It's a good question I've had a go with some of the £1K sets and I enjoy listening with IMR IEMs more. Past a certain level it's more about how different signatures sound not how better one is from another. I'm intoxicated with Bob's version of how an iem should sound. Plus very few other manufacturers can do tuning systems as well as IMR to allow you to fine tune your preferences. Finally IMR bass is untouchable, I didn't realise I was a bass head till IMR
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For me this is the killer feature.
I was at Camjam London on Sunday and tried various IEMs. Maybe I'm too used to the IMR sound, maybe it was because the WiFi was overburdened and I couldn't play the tracks I know well, maybe I'm not the best judge of good Audio, but the only IEMs I liked more than my IMR collection were the Vision Ears Phoenix (£2,999) and the EXT (£2,299).
(To note, I also tried Audio64 U12s, the Noble Kublai Khan's and some others.)
The fact that nothing within a similar price to DM & Avalon left me thinking "wow, I must have these" and even with the VE Phoenix I don't think they sound ~£2,500 better than the DM or Avalon shows that we get something very good for the price... or shows us that my ears aren't that good
!
PeacockObscura
1000+ Head-Fier
Thanks for the first impressions that's really wet my appetite for the Zenith 11
